History Girls
Book: Bianca Flanders
Music & Lyrics: Marcel Meyer
Direction: Fred Abrahamse
Musical Direction & Arrangements: Jaco Griesel
Set & Costume Design: Fred Abrahamse & Marcel Meyer
Lighting Design: Jaco Griesel
Cast: Lara Visagie, Onela Metuso, Hlumelo Yawa, Megan de Waal, Zoë Gray, Tyral-Lee Miggels, Jeani Heyns, Sarah Falconer, Tiffany Miller, Siya Makakane, Zoë Chetty
Venue: Galloway Theatre, Waterfront Theatre School
Dates: March/April 2021
About:
HISTORY GIRLS, intertwines the narratives of 11 remarkable young women, aged 12 to 21, who, in their own individual ways, went on to shape world history.
Although the girls featured in the musical stem from diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and historical eras they each displayed a resilience of spirit that united them in their determination to make a marked difference in their respective communities.
The girls featured in HISTORY GIRLS are French saint and freedom fighter Joan of Arc; South African prophetess Nongqawuse; celebrated entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker; acclaimed Mexican painter Frida Kahlo; legendary humanitarian and saint, Mother Teresa; Indira Gandhi, India’s first and only female Prime Minister; German Dutch diarist Anne Frank, who remains one of the most prominent victims of the Holocaust; Queen Elizabeth II and her younger sister Princess Margaret; civil rights activist Elizabeth Ann Eckford, one of the ‘Little Rock Nine’, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students to attend classes at the formerly segregated Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas and Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, who is best known for folding one thousand origami paper cranes before her death in 1955. Sasaki to this day, is a symbol of the innocent victims of nuclear warfare.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
HISTORY GIRLS was written during the COVID-19 lock-down.
In December 2020 two of the songs “Song in the Attic” and “One Thousand Paper Cranes” were performed in Durban as part of the STORIES 2020 song cycle that showcased new South African musical theatre writing.
In March/April 2021, HISTORY GIRLS was presented as a workshop, utilising students from the Waterfront Theatre School in Cape Town, South Africa.
The response to the material was very positive.
